Hello, fellow banjo lovers and welcome to the Banjos Elite website, where fine, high end banjos are for sale. I hope you find a banjo here that will give you many years of playing satisfaction at home alone, at jam sessions and on stage. The instruments on this website are high end banjos of the best quality, having been manufactured by some of the best five-string builders in the world such as Stelling, OME, Bishline and Nechville.

I’m from Midland, Texas and have been playing the banjo since 1968, when I bought my first banjo, a Gibson RB-100, which I bought on layaway for $100.00 total. I did odd jobs and paid $10 per week on my new prize until it was truly all mine. In the meantime, I strung my electric guitar with a set of banjo strings and started teaching myself to play. Those were the days when only two instruction books were available: “How to play the 5-string banjo – a manual for beginners,” by Pete Seeger, Third Edition Revised, 1962 and, of course, the 1968 book that rocked the banjo world, “Earl Scruggs And The 5-String Banjo.” Many of us remember learning off of LPs and slowing the record player down to 16 RPM so we could tell what was really going on. Golden days.

During my first official banjo lesson with Barry Hurt in 1976 at Barry’s Pickin’ Parlor in Odessa, I saw my first Stelling. Barry’s wife Pam had bought it for him for his birthday. He told me I needed one of those. After playing it, I agreed, but couldn’t quite afford it. The following year(November of 1977) I received my first Stelling, SN 618 – a beautiful Staghorn. It’s a fabulous instrument which still looks, plays and sounds terrific. I’ll never sell it.

I played in my first bluegrass band (Texas Natural Grass) in the latter half of the 1970s and in the ‘90s and beyond with String Fever.

Since then I’ve bought over 100 banjos, 80 of which are Stellings. People, when you’re selling anything, often ask, “Why are you selling?” I am now selling some of these prized possessions for personal reasons, but not out of necessity, so I won’t be “Fire Sale” –ing any of them.

As you browse through the instruments you will notice that Kat Eyz 11/16 bridges are on virtually every instrument that I own. I installed these fine bridges for two reasons: 1) they produce a very bright sound and I like a bright sound and 2) my right hand started giving me trouble and I found that my evenness was better the lighter I picked, so the Kat Eyz bridge helped make up for my lighter picking. Where possible, I will provide the original bridge as well.

I will pay for overnight shipping (insured, of course) in the U.S.A. Payment may be made by personal check or bank check. No wire transfers. Shipping will occur after funds are securely in my account.